Gretzky Dropped By Elbow

KEN RAPPOPORTMarch 4, 1996

Back in Edmonton, this time with the St. Louis Blues, Wayne Gretzky dropped to the ice from an elbow to his head by Kelly Buchberger.

``He was out cold,″ Blues coach Mike Keenan said after his team’s 4-3 victory Sunday. ``There’s no question about it. He was pretty groggy when we came in at the end of the period. ... He looks better to me now.″

Gretzky sustained what doctors described as a mild concussion. He probably will return to St. Louis for further tests, and it was not immediately clear how long he will be sidelined.

Gretzky was elbowed by Buchberger at 6:33 of the second period and left for the dressing room clinging to the shoulders of his new teammates.

Gretzky, who had led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups in the 1980s, had played just one game with the Blues since being traded from the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday for three players and two draft choices. He scored in a 2-2 tie with Vancouver on Thursday and set up another by Al MacInnis in the first period of the game against Edmonton.

``He’s done so many great things for the game,″ said Glenn Anderson, a former teammate of Gretzky’s now with the Oilers. ``You want to make sure everything’s all right with him.″

Defenseman Igor Kravchuk scored the game-winner for St. Louis at 10:04 of the third.

``It was nice to come to a building where you played for six years and get the game-winner,″ said Mogilny, who scored 211 goals as a member of the Sabres.

Kirk McLean stopped 32 shots for his 18th career shutout and first of the season. His last shutout came April 11, 1995, against Anaheim, and his last road shutout was Jan. 25, 1992, at St. Louis.

Mogilny scored in the first minute of the first period to give the Canucks, then assisted on one of Cliff Ronning’s two goals.

``He’s a quality hockey player and a quality person,″ Canucks coach Rick Ley said of Mogilny. ``I go down the bench and go to him and say, `We have enough goals. Now we need solid defense,′ and he’ll be our best guy at doing it.″

Capitals 3, Flyers 0

Jim Carey stopped 27 shots and posted his second shutout in as many days as Washington beat visiting Philadelphia and extended its unbeaten streak to four.

Carey’s shutout was his league-leading sixth this season, the 10th of his career. Carey, who beat Boston 2-0 on Saturday, set a team record, topping Don Beaupre’s five shutouts during the 1990-91 season.

The Flyers, who had been unbeaten in three games, outshot Washington 27-18 but could not prevent Carey’s 27th victory _ two shy of Beaupre’s team record for victories, also set in 1990-91.

Sergei Gonchar, Steve Konowalchuk and Kevin Kaminski scored for the Capitals, 3-0-1 in their last four.

Jets 7, Islanders 5

Keith Tkachuk’s 39th started a three-goal burst to lead visiting Winnipeg over New York for its fifth straight win.

Igor Korolev and Mike Stapleton also scored in the third period as Winnipeg overcame a 5-4 deficit and moved into sixth place in the Western Conference, passing Calgary and Toronto.

Tkachuk led the comeback at 5:03, as he tipped in Alexei Zhamnov’s blast from the right point. Korolev flipped a shot in at 8:01, and Stapleton scored shorthanded at 11:13.

Flames 5, Sharks 1

In San Jose, Theoren Fleury scored two goals to lead Calgary.

Fleury scored just 53 seconds into the game to give the Flames a 1-0 lead, then scored a power-play goal to give the Flames a 3-1 lead in the third period.

The win was the Flames’ fourth in six games. San Jose, which has the NHL’s second-worst record (14-44-6), is 2-8-1 in its last 11.

Red Wings 6, Blackhawks 2

In Chicago, Vladimir Konstantinov had a goal and two assists as Detroit tied a club record with its 47th victory.

Steve Yzerman added a goal and assist as Detroit (47-12-4) won for the ninth time in 11 games and matched the club mark for wins set in the 1992-93 season. The Red Wings are now 10-1-1 in the last 12 meetings with Chicago.

Lightning 2, Mighty Ducks 2

Paul Kariya and Joe Sacco scored two minutes apart early in the third period and rallied Anaheim into a tie with Tampa Bay.

Bill Houlder and Brian Bradley gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead with power-play goals in each of the first two periods against Mikhail Shtalenkov. The Ducks scored on two of their first three shots in the third period to prevent the Lightning from improving their record in the state of California to 10-0.

Avalanche 4, Maple Leafs 0

In Denver, Patrick Roy recorded his 30th career shutout as Colorado handed Toronto its eighth straight loss.

Roy, earning his second shutout of the season and his first in 26 games with Colorado, had 26 saves.

Joe Sakic, Adam Deadmarsh, Troy Murray and Chris Simon had goals for Colorado, which won its sixth straight home game and has lost just once in its last 16 home games (10-1-5). Toronto is 3-16-3 in its last 22 games, during which it has scored just 49 goals.